Chrome 59 is now officially rolled out to desktops and mobiles, but the bleeding edge will still be found in the beta versions. That means – for you and me – Chrome 60 Beta, which brings with it a number of new features mainly for developers, but also includes a nice homescreen search widget for your phone.
The new Chrome homescreen search widget is 4×2 by default, although you can resize it to a smaller size, depending on your needs. When a user taps on it, the new widget directly opens the Omnibox and launches the keyboard for users to be able to input a search query or enter a URL. The widget also features a shortcut to search Chrome via voice.
Under the hood, you will see a number of changes that should benefit developers. For payments, there is now support for the Payment Request API on desktops. Sites can now collect payments through native Android payment apps using the same API. The Credential Management API which was announced last year now allows websites to use Chrome’s password manager and services like Google Smart Lock.
You can download this version through the Chrome beta channel. Google estimates that this version should transition over to the stable channel in around five weeks.
SOURCE: Google
